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Another Houston loss is Baltimore's gain

First Andre Johnson, now Mario Williams. The Ravens are catching a huge break on both sides of the ball entering their matchup with Houston.

The Texans lost Johnson - their top offensive playmaker - to a hamstring injury last week, and yesterday, they lost Williams - their All-Pro defensive end and top defensive playmaker - to a torn pectoral muscle.

That means Gary Kubiak's team will be without both star players when they take on the Ravens this Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium.

Given the injuries to Johnson and Williams, Baltimore's defense can feel more confident keying in on Texans running back Arian Foster and their offense can feel more comfortable in protecting quarterback Joe Flacco.

To make matters worse for Houston, they dropped a 25-20 decision to the Raiders yesterday, leaving them with a 3-2 record on the season. Now they'll head into Baltimore to face a more rested, healthier Ravens team than the one we last saw.

Baltimore's bye week - and the lack of practices during the bye thanks to the new collective bargaining agreement and head coach John Harbaugh's generosity - should give the team a boost going into this weekend's matchup.

We don't yet know the status of the eight Ravens who entered the bye battling various injuries, but it's safe to say that Lee Evans, Ben Grubbs, Jimmy Smith and others benefited from the time away.

Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed their bye weekend and got to kick back and watch some non-Ravens action yesterday.

The two AFC North teams in action didn't help the Ravens out at all - both the Steelers and Bengals earned wins and now sit a half-game behind Baltimore - but it was nice to watch all the NFL action from a different perspective yesterday.

Myself, I took advantage of the beautiful weather and played some golf, and then got some rare time with the RedZone channel, which has to be one of the greatest creations in our generation.